May 2020

6 MARKET NEWS Issue 2 2020 Power Electronics Europe www.power-mag.com R apid technological advances, standardization and increasing adoption all continue to drive down the cost of green technologies, making them cost competitive against their fossil-fuel-era predecessors. However, this is not enough. ‘Sector coupling’ – ie, the electrification of more areas of the economy – would enable countries in Europe to make substantial progress toward becoming the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, a new study by Bloomberg By 2050, the generation mix in a country like the U.K. or Germany almost fully switches to low-carbon technologies thanks to cheap renewables, according to BNEF analysis. As a result, sector coupling could lower emissions by 60 % over 2020-50 across transport, buildings and industrial. This would equate to a 71 % reduction on 1990 levels. Sector coupling may increase the greenhouse-gas output for the electricity sector itself because more fossil-fuel-fired plants are needed to provide sufficient flexibility to the system. However, economy-wide emissions will still be significantly lower because transport, buildings and industry switch away from fossil fuels. In particular, by 2030, the coupled sectors together with electricity could cut emissions to 63 % below 1990 levels compared with the EU legislated target of 40 %. By 2050, this reduction would extend to 83 % below 1990 levels. A plausible sector coupling trajectory or ‘pathway’ envisages that power (directly or indirectly) supplies 50-60 % of the final energy consumed by the coupled sectors by 2050 – up from around a tenth today. The share of unabated fossil fuels drops from nearly 80% to 23 %. The speed of progress varies across the coupled sectors: transport has already begun electrification, driven by government support and the growing cost competitiveness of road-going electric vehicles (EVs). However, the pathway shows the buildings sector could overtake transport in terms of electrification by 2050. Little progress away from fossil fuels for long-haul and heavy road transport, aviation and shipping is expected. Flexible coupling assumes that coupled sectors have some demand- side flexibility. In transport, EV charging infrastructure allows for just over half of the passenger fleet and a quarter of the commercial fleet to charge dynamically by 2050. In buildings, well-insulated homes are a source of flexibility for heat demand. Air-source heat pumps in efficient homes deliver heat three hours before it is needed, helping to even out the load profile of electricity demand in buildings. To calculate the share of the efficient housing stock, we assume an annual retrofit rate of 1 % and new build rate of 0.4 % until 2050, increasing the share of efficient homes in the archetype from around 10 % in 2018 to 40 % in 2050. Full sector coupling assumes the same assumptions as flexible coupling, but includes additional demand volumes expected for the electrification of commercial building heating demand and industrial process heating. “Electrifying other areas of the economy will have significant repercussions for the power system. Policy makers will have to support the reinforcement and extension of the grid to handle higher power volumes and more renewables, and the deployment of batteries and other sources of flexibility to balance the system,” comments Albert Cheung, head of analysis for BNEF. https://about.bnef.com/ Powering Decarbonization Wound electrical components manufacturer REO UK has invested in several new edge winding machines at its German manufacturing headquarters. The new machines will allow for the development of electrical components such as chokes and transformers that are lighter by up to 10 % and with reduced power losses of up to 25 % compared to existing products. The edge winding technique produces coils that reduce skin effect and proximity losses compared to traditional coiling techniques. Edgewound coils also boast a lower parasitic capacitance than other methods of winding, which reduces unwanted high frequency return paths to help components ensure electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). In addition, the single-layered structure of the edgewound coils allows for greater and more efficient dissipation of heat. This is especially helpful in applications that require water-cooling or that are expected to operate under high levels of mechanical and thermal stress, such as leakage transformers in the rail sector or chokes used in electric vehicles (Evs), two markets that are expected to grow in the coming years. “Bloomberg has predicted that annual EV sales will hit 10 million over the next five years,” explained Steve Hughes, managing director of REO UK. “As this market develops, the components within those vehicles need to develop as well. Electrical components such as chokes are key in this area, and introducing edge winding into our wound components allows them to be even better suited to this application. With this investment, we are now able to develop new electrical components that meet the evolving needs of this ever-evolving industry. Not only does the new technique offer greater heat dissipation and lower losses, it also allows us to optimize each product to meet the technical and budgetary requirements of customers. The improved cooling makes it feasible to use aluminium and copper conductors, providing more flexibility in meeting technical demands.“ The reduced losses and undesirable parasitic elements of an edgewound coil makes it much more suitable for use around SiC and GaN semiconductors, running at higher frequencies. REO is continuing to develop electrical components using edge winding. Currently, the winding technique is best suited to products with a current between 50 and 250 A. www.reo.co.uk REO Invests in Edge Winding Machines